Friday, December 10, 2010

Another gig done and dusted....now for some time off!

So I realise now that I haven’t blogged in quite a long time considering all things that have happened in the past 5 or 6 weeks. Best to start at the beginning….You obviously know that I returned to Doha. But I wanted to post the photos of the new Art Museum. The art was pretty much take it or leave it, but the building itself is absolutely stunning. The Arabs got the architect from the Louvre, IM Pei, to come out of retirement to design it, and he did a great job. Anyway here are the photos that I wanted to share.

The Gallery

The Centre of the Gallery

One of the Outer Corridors of the Gallery

After a few days in Doha, I flew into Dubai to meet up with Julie. I spent about 2 weeks working out of the Filmmaster office because we couldn’t get any accommodation on Yas Island in the lead up to the Formula 1. So as soon as that finished, we moved to Yas to work out of Ferrari World. Being onsite was much better and we started loading in during the overnights. The load in was relatively stressful, but we did get there in the end. I, unfortunately, got a bit sick just before the gig, but did make it to the show day. I didn’t get that many photos of the show itself, but I did manage to find a few videos online. The first one is a really good cross section of the show. The second one is someone's dodgy recording of the whole show. Watch that only if you have a spare 30 minutes.

I did see a few other things in Dubai, but there wasn't a lot of spare time.

Here is the Burj Khalifa at night -- the world's tallest building

Me at the Fish Tank in Atlantis

When I was feeling a bit better, Dawn (who I worked with on the Comm Games and is living in Abu Dhabi working at the F1 Track) and I jumped into her car and road tripped it down to the Chedi in Muscat. It was exactly what we both needed. Both of us just survived big gigs and just wanted to sit by the pool, drink lime infused water and eat free canapés every night at 6pm. It was exactly as I remembered….probably better. Didn’t do any sight seeing of any kind except a quick visit to the souq to buy a few pashminas. We had some plans to go see the National Day show that a few of our friends were working on, but it was a bit hard to get organised, so we didn’t go. We watched it on television though. I also had plans to see Howards compete in the World Fireworks Championships, but I had to catch a flight to Hong Kong and start the big trip back to the US for Christmas…Chedi Photos – that’s right – be jealous, very jealous indeed.

The Infinity Pool

My view from my pool side bed

Just to make you feel bad, more Infinity Pool

The Chedi Beach

Dawn and I with our room services breakfast (which was included in our room charge!)

Then there was Hong Kong. I arrived late on Weds night, spent basically all day Thursday exploring the city and flew out on Friday morning.

My Hotel's Christmas Festivities...reminded me it was Dec

But I did cram a lot in on that Thursday. Got up early to catch a ferry and bus to the bottom of Victoria Peak. Took the tram to the top of the mountain and had an amazing view of the city.Here are some shots of the view from the adventure.

The tram at the bottom

Tram tracks from the top

View from the top

Pano shot of the other side of the peak

My First Attempt at Self Portrait up there

Second Attempt

A photo that someone offered to take of me after seeing my self portrait struggle

Took the tram back down and decided to see a bit of the famous Hong Kong shopping. Started with just a shopping mall, but then got a bit more into the markets and whatnot.

A little bit of Minnesota in Hong Kong

By this time I was quite exhausted from all of the people and walking, so I decided to head back to the hotel for a bit of a rest up. After my nap, I took a little trip to my rooftop pool and hot tub. I had no intention of getting in the pool as it was no where near warm enough, but thought the hot tub could be exactly what I needed. The view was fabulous, but the water in the hot tub wasn’t anywhere near warm enough either, so after about 10 minutes, I headed back inside.

Hot Tub View....the water should have been warmer!

So after a shower and a clean up, I headed over to The Peninsula Hotel for a little drink.

The Christmas lights in the Harbour on the way to the bar

Outside the Peninsula Hotel

I sat in a fantastic bar called Salon de Ning. It was decked out all 1920s cocktail bar. I ordered myself a vodka martini because it was definitely the kind of place where you drink one. Soon enough the amazing jazz band started, and lucky for me it was 2 for 1 on the martinis so they brought me another one. Decided that I needed some food, so I ordered a lovely cheese platter and just sat listening to the band. They were singing all of my fav Bacharach tunes. It was brilliant. They even took some of my requests. But around 11pm I decided it was time to head home.

My Table at Salon de Ning (I kept the hanky my glass is sitting on as a memento!)

Inside Salon de Ning

Fri morning woke up to start the 11 hour journey back to San Francisco. It definitely was the long way to go home. But it will be great to see my family for Christmas. The last time I was in MN for Christmas was 2002, so it is quite overdue.I arrived in MN last night to the start of one of the biggest snow storms in years. I can't believe it. And tomorrow night it is meant to be -15f/-26c, the coldest night this winter! So Minnesota has welcomed me home with open arms. Good thing Mom and I stocked up on hot chocolate and soup because we will literally not be going anywhere for a couple of days. Minnesota does a great job digging you out, but there is nothing you can do when it is that f-ing cold except stay home.

Photos of the current snow situation.The BackyardSee if you can spot our driveway (and our old house across the street!)Some of the snow piling up on our roof

Anyway, hope everyone is well on their respective corners of the world. I did a bit of rereading of the blog while flying and have realised that I have made myself a bit of a travel blogger without even knowing it. It will be nice to stay in one place for a while next. Every once in a while I like to know my local pizza man and fish n chippery. Oh and have an actual address!!!Lots of love, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that…